2 vs SAINT

As the battle raged on, Keo and Mekna found themselves facing off against the formidable Leo, their movements a blur of fire and ice. Mekna's flames danced across the ground, only to be transformed into a wave of ice.

Both Mekna and Keo possessed the ability of Thermal Reversal, allowing them to switch between each other's elements at will. This meant that at any moment, Mekna's flames could give way to icy blasts, and Keo's waves could erupt into fiery explosions.

The randomness of their attacks made it difficult for Leo to anticipate their next move, but despite this, he seemed to be adapting, his own abilities allowing him to stay one step ahead. The gap in power enabled him to act despite Mekna's Entropy acting against him.

Keo's bident, normally a reliable and deadly tool, seemed to be striking true less and less often, as though the Saint was reading her attack patterns and had almost memorized them.

Mekna, meanwhile, was finding it difficult to land a solid hit on Leo, his flames and reversed ice blasts being deflected or absorbed by the Saint's kinetic abilities. Despite their best efforts, Keo and Mekna were being slowly but surely pushed back, their movements becoming more and more desperate as they struggled to keep up with Leo's relentless assault.

The fight was a chaotic mess of fire and ice, water and steel, with all three combatants exchanging blows and counterattacks at a dizzying pace. Keo's water manipulation allowed her to create waves and whirlpools that threatened to engulf Leo, but he used his phantom limbs and entropy to swat both her and her attack away.

She rolled in a circle the moment her back touched the ground and threw her bident at him. Once again, Leo caught the weapon, his hand freezing and was instantly struck by a bolt of lightning. She once again made a whirlpool around him, but Leo managed to shrug off the lightning and flexed off the water surrounding him, although he was a bit dazed by the lightning.

Keo, not wasting time, ran towards him. He threw the Bident at her, but she tilted her head, and it whizzed past her.

She then slid under the wide horizontal swing Leo made and did a handstand, kicking him in the chin and spinning upside down to land two more. She pushed herself off the ground just as his sword landed where she had been a few seconds ago and once again closed the distance, entering into a space he couldn't readily move his sword and began to punch and kick him while jumping around to avoid swings from his sword. Mekna joined her and made a swing at the knight, but he dodged, and the blade went towards Keo. But that was part of their sync. Mekna let go of the blade and pushed it, causing the handle to spin into Leo's open palm.

Just like Mekna, Keo inherited some abilities from her master when she became a member of his household. Sysia, seeing the shortcomings of the two, gave them similar abilities. Opposite yet adjacent was the best way to make up for their individual shortcomings and produce the best solution for them to serve.

Thus, Keo was granted the Special ability Dissolution, the opposite of Nucleation.

It's an ability that enabled Keo to disrupt and break down existing structures and thermal activity, similar but not quite the same as what Mekna could do.

As the fight wore on, Leo found himself unable to use Kinetic Disruption, and his other kinetic-based abilities began to falter, giving the duo the opportunity to push him back for the first time.

This was one of Keo's primary abilities: the creation of a localized "Null Zone." This area prevented the absorption of energy, rendering targets impervious to effects that rely on energy absorption.

Mekna used this to generate a heat wave focused on Leo, and since he couldn't dissipate it, he was pushed even further still.

Leo managed to physically break free of the heat wave and then made a few swings at them, but his movements appeared slowed, and they were easily able to avoid them, jumping back out of the reach of his invisible appendages.

This was another ability granted by Dissolution: Molecular Deceleration. This power targeted molecules, drastically reducing their kinetic energy and causing them to slow down or come to a near standstill. By suppressing molecular motion to a crawl, she could effectively create a state of near-absolute rest. Which she used to freeze the knight. Mekna raised the cleaver over his head, and Keo froze it as he threw the sword at Leo, and it spun, bursting into flames which turned blue, its blunt edge striking him in the head, then exploding into a dome of flames and frost, the thermal differences creating an equinox of potential energy that knocked him down and held him in place as the force converged on him, increasing with each passing second.

As a direct parallel to Nucleation's ability to manipulate entropy, Keo could create a state of Negentropy. This unique ability allows her to decrease disorder and randomness, manifesting her predetermined specific outcome of her choosing, such as Mekna's blow staggering the knight.

Sadly, despite their coordination and perfectly synced attacks, as at that moment, Leo was much stronger than they were.

He unleashed the Omni-directional blast of kinetic energy he had been storing while taking their hits, canceling out the attack that pressed him down, sending Keo and Mekna flying backward. With a fierce battle cry, Leo sprinted towards them, his speed so incredible that time itself seemed to freeze around him. He closed the distance in the blink of an eye, his fists a blur as he pummeled both Keo and Mekna with a flurry of swift and precise blows. With a final, crushing blow, Leo caused Mekna to spin and grabbed Keo by the leg, twisting it and slamming her into Mekna, the two of them tumbling through the air before slamming into the nearby house with a deafening crash.

He picked up Keo's bident and walked over to the two of them. He stood over them, seeking to skewer the two in a single thrust when a powerful wind blade knocked him back.

Kojo knelt down in front of his subordinates.

"M-master," Keo said weakly, but Kojo placed a hand on her, sending some arcana through her and healing them both of the worst of their injuries.

Kojo then stood up and drew Caliburn.

He had arrived there from the meeting the moment the house was destroyed and was observing the fight while thinking of a way to beat the saint. He knew that it would be difficult and wasn't sure that he'd come out on top without a lot of loss. Sysia had also informed him that he was under some kind of mental suggestion, and so they needed to be careful.

Well, it didn't matter. He was pissed that his people were this beaten.

The Saint looked at him and smiled.

"Yes, it is you. You are the mastermind." He pointed his sword at Kojo.

Though his ability was invisible, Kojo's perception allowed him to see dozens of limbs extending from Leo, growing larger as they extended.

At that moment, Cassandra woke up from her vision and, dazed, got up. She saw Kojo and Leo about to fight, and flashes of the vision she'd just seen crossed her mind.

She yelled out.

"Ezrah."

"Help?" Kojo repeated, confused.

Just then, the runes in his sword glowed. Kojo looked at the sword, and his eyes widened. Leo ignored the distraction and lunged with his arms. Before he could react, another person appeared. Instantly, the phantom limbs burst apart, and a sword was raised in front of Leo, slashing him before he could react. He suddenly came to his senses.

"Huh? Where am I? Lady Yu—" He looked at the person in front of him, but she slapped him into the ground, creating a small crater.

She then turned to Kojo with a serious expression.

Kojo took a step back. If Yukio was also being controlled, then he was so screwed.

Cassandra, weak, collapsed, and Yukio appeared beside her, catching her before Kojo knew what was happening. She carried the girl into the house, walking past Kojo as the house began to repair itself. Kojo was left standing there, with a confused expression on his face.